Posted on 01/16/2011 2:17:38 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Exactly!!
“The councilmember’s office confirms she was at the station Friday on a scavenger hunt with staff members”
A Scavenger Hunt during business hours???
Got me. Reliving her short time on "Survivor perhaps?"
Most firemen do alo0t more than just fires. My hubby worked as a firefighter for 33 yrs and 95% or higher of all their calls were ‘rescues’. He worked at the busiest station in our county for about 15 yrs. and got calls from hang nails to contract murders. In his 48 hr shift they would do 20 or more calls.
Pittsburgh has First Responders that treat medical calls before the Paramedics get there.
I have worker with both Pittsburgh Paramedics and firefighters and I found the medics to be arrogant and didnt really care about patient care. The firefighters seemed to really want to help.
I hope the Firefighters here take over the City of Pittsburgh Paramedics.
Here firefighters are the first responders for everything. They are all EMT’s and the ambulance is always second on the scenesometimes as far out as 10-15 minutes.
Someone with a sane voice & logic has to intervene here & set the hooks into the councilWOMAN who took it upon herself to do a surprise visit to a fire station & start yapping. If she knows how to cook anything at all, she should be ashamed of herself. Maybe she only knows how to make reservations.
According to the article, this station has a staff level of 50 men. They most likely work 48 on & 48 off. Some places in the country work 72 on & 72 off.
What right does she have to snark off about how many ovens & how many refrrigerators that station has? I will bet a nice pork roast & beans with molasses & onions & hot garlic bread that there were experts who set up these parameters. How many refrigerators does the local school cafeteria have? How many ovens? The schools only feed kids SOME of their meals & only 5 days a week. How about the local Mission that feeds the homeless? Let her go there & see if they might need some help!!!
During the past 2 years, I have been put into a position of cooking for many people, a bit by default. I belong to a horse riding club that puts on at least one event a month. Anywhere from 25 riders to 60 riders might show up. Then there are volunteers who do timing, rider counts, sign ups, etc, & non-riding spouses who come along & help park rigs or help their other half & eat with us. There is even a local vendor who makes lots of horse tack & blankets, etc, who comes & we feed him, too. We serve everybody who shows up- even spectators. I rarely know very much in advance what the ‘food count’ MIGHT be.
To keep the cost of the rides down, we have developed a ‘Pot Luck’ method of feeding everyonewhen the awards are being handed out. The ride manager provides bottled water & the ‘Main Dish’.
I am single & I have NEVER been trained as a cook. I am actually a life-long bookkeeper. However, I live within ( 1/2 miles straight) 5 miles by road from the main location of base camp & the private residence there. His house has a simple stove with oven & 4 burners. Same as my house. His house has a refrigerator/freezer PLUS the extra one we found & bought for the garage for storing food for these events. I have 2 old refrigerators in my garage that I can put large bowls of food into prepared in advance, such as Jello salads.
I have purchased the following in those 2 years:::
Slow Cookers—5 qrt-6 qrt-— 7 qrt—another 7 qrt-— & a 15 qrt cooker.
I have also purchased 4 roasting pans & 12 cookie sheets and countless storage containers for prep & take home left overs. There is adequate power in his garage, where we set up tables to eat & serve food, cafeteria style. I do a fair amount of prep & pre-cooking at my own home & take hot food to the ride site. That sometimes can be a real challenge. Especially with 3 dogs in the vehicle with me.
We have prepared whole turkeys—mashed potatoes—gravy—dressing—hams—100 chicken thighs/28 wings & drumsticks—chili by the gallon—spaghetti—180 baked potatoes—trays of garlic bread & rolls—Root Beer floats with ice cream, huge bowls of salad-— huge bowls of Jello w/ fruit—& vegetarian soup or chili for those needs. etc. I get first dibs on turkey carcasses for soup with vegetables & barley.
The riders bring food for the pot luck part & that food has to be properly stored for 5-7 hours, which often makes FULL use of the refrigerator in the his garage. Brownies—cakes—cookies—pies—pasta salads-rice salads-cole slaw-—salsa—guacamoled—crackers—you name it, it has come to our events. We put bottled water in tubs with ice. We have become noted for our food & for not running out of it.
I think the highest total of people I have fed-—for ONLY ONE MEAL is about 80. I could not do this without the riders bringing prepared food—much of which does NOT need refrigeration.
50 men—eating a high number of calories per day, eating 3 meals a day & snacks would require more than a couple of ovens & a couple of refrigerators. They are on duty for a number of straight hours & must be prepared to leave in a hurry & enter into dangerous, calorie consuming situations. They do not eat like wimps. THEY EAT!!!!! THEY DESERVE TO!!!
Making the comment that all they do is sit around is equally disturbing. Any person who has managed to be a part of City government should have a better handle on the duties of a Fire Fighter or EMT.
I sincerely suggest she watch some old re-runs of “EMERGEMCY” which usually doesn’t show more than 8 staff members at any one time.
Anyone want to take the challenge & get the pork roast/beans/garlic bread dinner?
EMERGEMCY” “
EMERGENCY-—not enuf caffine yet today.
What a mess!
What it boils down to ridesthemiles is, Ms Jones sees herself a show horse, while you and those firemen are work horses — the people behind the scene who actually do something for others, unlike Ms Jones who is only doing for Ms Jones.
And after reading your wonderful post, my stomach is growling for lunch! Off to the kitchen.
The comments are rolling in.
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